


A Little Comfort in the Night

by ExuberantOcean



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:41:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29230152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExuberantOcean/pseuds/ExuberantOcean
Summary: With BJ on R&R, Charles is left to deal with Hawkeye's nightmares.
Relationships: Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce & Charles Emerson Winchester III
Comments: 10
Kudos: 33





	A Little Comfort in the Night

Charles Emerson Winchester the third’s precious sleep was being interrupted yet again. _It is bad enough,_ he groused mentally, _that I must endure life in these barbarian conditions. Must I be awaken at all hours of the night too?_ Far too often it was to the sound of choppers and the PA announcing incoming wounded. When it wasn’t that it was to Pierce and Hunnicutt staggering in, drunk, at ungodly hours while running their mouths in a stream of utter babble that they tried to pass off as wit. And when it was neither, it was this: the somnolent mumblings and little cries that marked another one of Pierce’s all too frequent nightmares. Charles waited with what little patience he could muster for Hunnicutt to noisily extract himself from his bed and stomp over to Pierce’s cot with all the delicacy of a stampeding elephant. 

Unfortunately the sounds of Hunnicutt rousing himself didn’t come and Pierce’s distress obviously deepened.

“Hunnicutt!” Charles hissed, but as soon as the word left his mouth he remembered: Hunnicutt was in Seoul for three days R&R, leaving him alone to deal with Hawkeye’s nightmares. He groaned as he sat up. Within the two months that he’d been confined to this miserable outpost he’d already learned that Hawkeye’s unattended nightmares only escalated to abject screaming. He wasn’t soon to forget the afternoon when Hunnicutt was in post ops and he was, well, attempting to use his considerable Winchester wit to persuade a transfer out of Potter. The screaming jarred the whole camp. By the time he made it back to the Swamp, Klinger and Hunnicutt had already revived Pierce from his nap. Charles had no intention of letting things escalate to that level tonight. He’d never get back to sleep.

He exited his cot and shuffled over to Pierce who by now was also tossing and turning fitfully. Now that he was here, he unsure what to do. What did Hunnicutt do? He never did really pay attention.

“There, there, chap.” Charles said, awkwardly patting Pierce’s shoulder.

That didn’t help. Pierce’s continued distress stirred memories of another time, another place. Charles sighed and let his hand rest on Pierce’s shoulder. 

“You know a Winchester knows how to keep quiet at night.” He said in a soft, soothing voice. “Father and Mother would often have guests over late into the night and after Nanny put us to bed we were expected to remain silent throughout the night. Any noise on our part was staunchly ignored. No, you certainly would not see this kind of coddling. It would not do.

“Honoria may be a Winchester but I’m afraid she always was a frightfully spirited child-still is in fact. No, the rules of the Winchesters were never properly followed by my dear sister, despite every attempt I have made to be a proper role model to her.”

Hawkeye had stilled and his cries became quieter, more sporadic, but Charles hardly noticed. His hand moved down from Hawkeye’s shoulder and started rubbing slow circles on his back. 

“Shortly after Timmy died, Honoria started having the most disturbing nightmares. She was just four at the time, you see, but that was no excuse for a Winchester. Father thought that it was best not to indulge in Honoria’s nightly emotional outbursts. No, after we were sent to our rooms at 8pm there was nothing that could move Father or Mother or Nanny to re-enter our rooms. It did not matter what was said or how hard we cried or yelled. Those doors remained closed.

“Of course, you must understand it was terribly difficult for me to sleep at night when she was screaming and crying half the night away. Father and Mother would be off to their soiree or well away from it in their wing but my room was next to hers, you see. And I wanted terribly to be able to sleep…

Charles took a ragged breath, followed by a deeper, steadying one. “So it was pure logic and self preservation you see, that had me in her room every night. Calming her, just as I am you. It wasn’t anything but that. I certainly didn’t have any weak need for company or comfort in the night, like she did. Like you do.”

Charles looked down at Hawkeye. He was sleeping soundly now, blissfully deaf to the whole conversation, Charles hoped. He stood up and stretched.

“You know Pierce, I do believe you’re about as mature as Honoria was at four years of age. It really does not surprise me that the same treatment should work on you.”

He chuckled quietly to himself as he made his way back to his cot. He sat heavily upon it, and looked around him. The screen tent walls allowed the warm breeze to offer its meager relief in the hot summer of this foreign land. Surrounded by strangers and mines and guns and danger at nearly every turn, so close to the front line of a war in a strange land, Charles glanced over one last time at Hawkeye. With a smile, he lay down to sleep.


End file.
